Victims' Kin Visit Site of R.I. Club Fire

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 22, 2003

For days, they've lived with the video images of their relatives jammed in the doorway of a burning nightclub, many screaming in terror as they struggled in vain to break free.

On Sunday, for the first time, families of the dozens of victims who couldn't escape were allowed to walk up to the charred rubble of The Station nightclub to pray and say goodbye.

Their visit came as the death toll from the tragedy was raised to 97, after the governor announced that yet another body had been pulled from amid the debris Saturday.

"We've gone over the site and over the site and hopefully there are not many more," Gov. Don Carcieri said Sunday. He also said that 11 more victims had been identified, bringing the total to 42.

Earlier Sunday, the families were bused to the site where a rock band's pyrotechnics turned the nightclub into a raging inferno. Nearby, a flatbed truck serving as a temporary memorial was piled with cards, flowers, stuffed animals, American flags, and even an unopened can of Budweiser.

Several people were overcome with emotion, the governor said. At least one had to be taken to an ambulance.

"These families are going through such a tragedy, such an emotional odyssey right now, and their hearts are broken, and they still don't know in many cases whether their loved one has been positively ID'd," said Carcieri, who met with the families several times in the days after the fire.

On Sunday, he ordered a no-fly zone within 5 miles of the site to give the families privacy to mourn.

"The agony they've been going through for the last 48 hours almost has turned into what you'd expect, the kinds of questions: 'Why did this happen? Did it have to happen? What caused it to happen? Did some individuals cause it to happen?'" Carcieri said. "We're asking all the same questions."

The band was just getting into its first song Thursday night when sparks from the pyrotechnics ignited foam tiles in the ceiling and quickly spread flames over the crowd of more than 300. Fire officials said the entire building was engulfed in three minutes.

Carcieri said Sunday that a moratorium on pyrotechnic displays had been issued for clubs accommodating 50-300 people, and that fire inspectors would fan out across the state to check the clubs.

Under gray skies and sporadic rainfall Sunday, the family members huddled as they left flowers, poems and photos at a chain-link fence surrounding the debris. Before the families arrived, a steady stream of mourners stopped by. One person left a 6-foot wooden cross; taped to it was a high school portrait that simply read "Stephen." Another left a rosary-draped plaque reading: "No farewell words were spoken, no time to say goodbye. You were gone before we knew it, and only God knows why."

Among them was James Morris, 36, of Warwick, who said he was supposed to attend the concert Thursday, but didn't feel like going out that night. Six of his friends went without him and haven't been heard from since.

"It's unbelievable," he said, hugging his two sons. "It's just awful. They were all young guys in their 20s, early 30s."

Carcieri said 80 survivors remained hospitalized, about two dozen in critical condition.

Later Sunday, about 150 people crowded into St. Francis Chapel and City Ministry, with acoustic guitars and other instruments, for a memorial service described as "prayer unplugged." Some prayed, others sang.

"We came to pray for the families and the victims," said Teresa McQuiggan, 76, of East Providence. "And last but not least, we're here to pray for the dead."

Like many others who attended the service, McQuiggan didn't know anyone who died in the fire.

"People are getting closer since this happened. Everyone just wants to pull together," Sandra Rego said.

During the hourlong service, twin sisters recounted their escape from the burning nightclub through windows.

"I thought I was going to die," recalled Kimberly Napolitano, 30, of North Providence, who went to the club with her sister and a friend. "If we didn't get out of there within 30 seconds, we would've been dead."

Three days after the fire, questions remained about whether the heavy metal group Great White had permission to set off the fireworks _ and whether anyone should face charges in the deadly blaze.

The club did not have a permit for the special effects. While the leader and an attorney for the band _ which returned to Los Angeles without guitarist Ty Longley, missing since the blaze _ have said the group got permission from the club before setting off the special effects, the club's owners insist they never approved pyrotechnics use.

"It was a total shock to me to see the pyrotechnics going off when Great White took the stage," said Jeffrey Derderian, a Providence television reporter who had owned the club with his brother since 2000.

Derderian spoke publicly Saturday, breaking down in tears and struggling to regain his composure as he talked about the victims.

"This tragedy has claimed the lives of our friends," he said, "people who are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. We will somehow live with this grief, like so many other people, for the rest of our lives."

Derderian was at the club the night of the fire and said he tried to help as many people as he could get out alive.

"It is very difficult to express what I experienced in the club that night," he said. "Please know I tried as hard as I could," he said, choking up and bowing his head. "Many people didn't make it out and that is a horror our family will live with for the rest of our lives."